Warm today, cooler by Thursday

It should be warm enough for the beach today but probably not on Thursday.

Carline Jean, Sun Sentinel

Carline Jean, Sun Sentinel

Ken KayeSun Sentinel

It should be nice and warm today and Wednesday - then considerably cooler on Thursday and Friday.

The forecast calls for the mercury to dip into the low 50s on Thursday night and Friday morning across the region. High temperatures on Thursday and Friday should be in the mid 70s.

That's thanks to a strong cold front, which is expected to trigger potentially heavy rains on Wednesday.

South Florida's Tuesday forecast calls for mostly sunny skies with highs in the low 80s and lows in the upper 60s.

Central Florida's forecast: Sunny with highs in the upper 70s and lows in the upper 50s. Watch out for early morning patchy fog.

Supercells: from weather expert Jim Lushine:

No, a supercell is not a high-tech battery. It is a type of thunderstorm that, unlike "ordinary" ones, may last an hour or more and travel more than a hundred miles while generating multiple tornadoes.

Potentially, we might see one on Wednesday night, as a cold front approaches.

Supercells can occur day or night when there is a high degree of atmospheric instability. The best way to prepare is to have a NOAA Weather Radio with an alarm that will sound if severe weather is approaching.

Fortunately, supercells are rare in South Florida, but they have caused severe damage and even death.

In 2003, a supercell thunderstorm first detected over Southwest Florida crossed the entire peninsula, a distance of more than 100 miles.

Then a tornado killed a man in the Brownsville section of Miami, injured 14 and caused $8 million in damage.